


A Parent's Worst Nightmare

by phoenixnz



Series: The Chronicles of Martha and Jonathan [31]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Episode Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 00:30:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21090380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixnz/pseuds/phoenixnz
Summary: The last words Jonathan had said to his son had been angry ones.





	A Parent's Worst Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to add this, since it's been playing on my mind for a while and I just rewatched the episode Hidden (5x03). Anyway, some of Jonathan's thoughts are based on something John Schneider said at a comic con. He was not happy with Clark and Lana sleeping together at only eighteen and pretty much said Jonathan would have taken Clark out to the woodshed and given him a pretty good spanking. Hypocritical? Yes, maybe. But I think he had a point which had little to do with their ages and more to do with Clark himself. I explored this a little in the story.

Jonathan sat with Martha in the hospital waiting room, dreading what was going on just a few yards away, hoping that somehow the thing that was every parent’s worst nightmare, wouldn’t come true.

It was unbelievable that it had happened to Clark, of all people. Clark, who had always been special. Clark who had somehow given up the thing that had made him special in favour of being normal. That was the problem. He wasn’t normal. Powers or no, he was everything Jonathan had always wanted in a son. And more.

He cradled his head in his hands, trying not to upset his wife beside him, afraid to voice not just the fears playing on his mind, but the regrets he had from the harsh way he had spoken to his son, less than an hour earlier.

It had started when he’d seen Clark and his girlfriend, Lana, trying to sneak down the stairs.

_Jonathan considered himself a pretty progressive kind of father. He had always tried to be fair with Clark, although some would say he was a little strict. When his son became a teenager, he’d told himself he wasn’t going to be the kind of father who would be so over-protective that the teenager would act out and rebel, rather like the young Lex Luthor. Sure, he had objected to Clark joining the football team in freshman year and had really been against it when Clark had gone against his wishes to become quarterback in senior year. That had turned out all right in the end._

_The thing was, Clark wasn’t like other kids. Apart from those few rebellious moments, mostly caused by Red K, his teenage son had actually been fairly obedient. This, however, was something he had not been prepared for._

_He’d stared in disbelief when he saw Clark and Lana entering the kitchen. Lana was wearing one of Clark’s plaid shirts. For a moment he thought she had been wearing nothing else but saw to his relief she was wearing jeans. It was fairly clear what had been going on between his eighteen-year-old son and his girlfriend._

_Jonathan had been raised with mid-western values. While he understood that it was rather old-fashioned to expect kids to wait until marriage before they had sex, the thought that his son would have sex under his roof was something he just wasn’t going to accept. He had rules for a reason. It didn’t matter that Clark was eighteen. Or that he wasn’t actually human. Even if he didn’t have his abilities at that moment._

_Lana started trying to explain but Jonathan wasn’t interested. If he had his way, he’d be taking Clark out to the woodshed and giving him the biggest ass whupping he’d ever received. Not that they’d ever done that to their son, not even when he’d been acting out on the red Kryptonite._

_Call him old-fashioned, but that was how his father had dealt with things. Jonathan had had his moments as a teenager, so he did know something about rebellion. He hadn’t exactly been a model son either. Martha hadn’t been his first sexual experience, but he’d been smart enough to do it somewhere so his dad hadn’t found out about it. Maybe that made him a hypocrite where Clark was concerned but if the only thing he’d had to worry about was Lana getting pregnant, then he doubted he would have been nearly so harsh. There was so much more to worry about than just them sleeping together._

_Martha stammered and stumbled over her words. She was clearly trying to be sympathetic, but Jonathan just shot his wife an ‘are you kidding?’ look. Normally it was Martha who would lose her temper. The one thing they’d always tried to do when raising Clark was not be the kind of parents who would allow their child to play one off against the other. If they made a decision they stuck to it. For her to be acting the more reasonable one, trying to smooth things over just didn’t sit well with him._

_He watched as Lana practically ran out the door and made Clark sit down at the counter, preparing for lecture mode. Martha again tried to smooth things over by asking if they were at least safe. Jonathan once more shot his wife a look of disbelief. Safe? There was far more to consider here than the two teenagers being safe. One, Clark wasn’t human, two, they had no idea If, however unlikely, Lana could get pregnant. They just didn’t know about Clark’s physiology or how Jor-El had suppressed their son’s powers. And if she did get pregnant, what would a child with Clark’s physiology do to her?_

_This was going to take more than just a general birds and the bees talk. This was serious!_

He chewed on his bottom lip. He’d been so ready to take Clark out to the woodshed but then Chloe had turned up and of course, Clark being Clark, he had to go help his friend.

That was the biggest regret Jonathan had. Practically the last words spoken to his son had been in anger and the thought that they would be the actual last words he’d ever said to his son …

He remembered something Clark had said when Whitney Fordman had supposedly returned from Indonesia. He’d wondered aloud if he would have been just as courageous going off to fight in a war if he had no powers. Jonathan would say that Clark had proved it by facing what seemed like a mentally unstable kid and getting shot in the process.

If he could just see his son now, he would tell him. Apologise for his earlier words, tell him how proud he was. If only …

He held Martha’s hand and gazed tenderly at her. She was trying not to show how upset she was, but he could always tell. When she was really upset, her face would take on that stoicism. He stroked her long red locks, still struck by how it shone even in the glare of the fluorescent lights in the waiting room.

Martha looked up and he turned his head, staring in disbelief as Lana came through, one hand reaching for the doorframe as if she needed it to hold her up. She was crying.

Not Clark. Not my son, he thought.

In the brief seconds, just as he heard Martha start to fall apart, he couldn’t help thinking about the deal he had once made with Jor-El. He’d paid a price with his health when he’d gone to Jor-El for help the summer Clark had run away. He’d done it before and he would do it again, he thought. Just bring my son back.

“Mr and Mrs Kent.” The young doctor approached them. She was obviously trying to maintain a calm disposition but it was clearly never easy giving such news. “We did everything we could …”


End file.
